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3700	10200	Hey! Hey, so this is Kathleen. We're back at the Career Hacking Village,
10200	17680	and I'm so excited to invite my friend Chris Rice to talk about resumes, because Chris and I have
17680	23920	done resume reviewing for the last six or seven years at several of the Las Vegas cons, and we
23920	32500	can tell you that resumes really are, one, very important to finding your next job, but two,
32500	38440	they can be really screwed up if you don't do them right, and three, people will tell you
39360	45860	to pay someone to do your resume when they really shouldn't. So I'm going to turn it over to my
45860	52540	friend Chris Rice, and he's going to talk to you about doing your resume. Chris, take it away.
52580	59220	Thank you so much, Kathleen. So I'm still getting used to presenting over video. It's
59220	65280	kind of one of those... I prefer talks in person, because I like a little bit of audience interaction,
65280	70740	and that way I can usually see if my terrible jokes are, like, getting a laugh, or like normal,
70740	76300	you know, just falling a bit flat. It's a good reminder of why I ended up in recruitment and
76300	83520	not in comedy. So let's talk about my... my talk's going to be called Owning Your Resume.
84800	90860	I'll tell you a little bit about me, first of all. So I've been for a bloody long time now in
90860	96900	tech recruitment, and the last eight years have been dedicated specifically to cybersecurity
96900	104280	recruitment. Eight years ago, I co-founded Tyro Security, which is a cybersecurity staffing and
104280	110080	professional services company based out of Los Angeles, and covering really the whole of the US.
110600	117460	I also co-founded a company called Commute.io, which we were looking to launch properly Q2 this
117460	125020	year. Much like jokes are all about timing, start-ups often are as well. Commute was focused
125020	131720	on retaining your staff, and doing that by looking at the horrible commutes that people had, and how
131720	138080	that affected their happiness. Clearly, while we're in this... this time where we're in the
138080	142980	crazy experiment of COVID, where everybody's working from home, and we're kind of figuring
142980	146620	that out, commutes aren't much of an issue right now. So who knows what's going to happen with that
146620	152680	one. Now, I'm also founding board member and president of the Cloud Security Alliance Southern
152680	159120	California chapter, and I'm an advisory board member for the National Cybersecurity Training
159120	166700	and Education Center. And just a little bit about me, I absolutely love diving with sharks.
167600	173220	Don't get to do it much anymore. I've got a little daughter, wife thinks it's too dangerous.
174240	179660	Yep, this is one of my pictures. And I was hanging out, I wasn't a cage, don't worry,
179660	185380	but I was actually hanging out of the cage with my camera like this. So I guess there's an element
185380	190320	of danger, that's probably why I enjoy doing it. But anyway, I'm on a band now, wife says I can't
190320	196780	do this anymore. But I am allowed to go to cybersecurity conferences. And the great thing
196780	203040	about that is there must be some cybersecurity people that are scuba divers, right? So if you
203040	207900	are, you need to connect with me on LinkedIn, we need to organize a conference that's on a scuba
207900	214200	diving boat, because I'm sure I can get the approval for that. So let's combine the two.
214200	221740	Totally up for that. Right, so what am I talking about? So I'm going to be talking about writing
221740	229480	the actual best resume for you. We're going to look at avoiding common mistakes. We're also
229480	237000	going to look at what most hiring managers want to read. And I say most because every person is
237000	242200	different. We've got to work for the majority and we've got to put together a resume that works for
242200	246720	the majority. And that's where my experience comes in. And hopefully this is what's going to
246720	250980	come out of this. And then it's going to be talking about getting your resume in front of the right
250980	255440	person. It's no good having an amazing resume unless you're actually having the right person
255440	268620	read it. What the talk's not about. Resumes, are they outdated? Well, probably. We must be able to
268620	272800	come up with something better than a piece of paper with this information on. But we haven't
272800	278800	got anything yet. Nothing that at least is accepted globally and can do everything that these
278800	286160	documents do while also minimising any potential bias. So, you know, we're still figuring that out.
286160	291340	LinkedIn and things like that. Who knows? Maybe they will end up taking over from resumes. But
291340	296420	right now, resumes are what we've got. We need to make the most of them. And the other thing we're
296420	302780	not going to cover is something I call keyword tricks. Keyword tricks are things like hidden
303460	310120	words, huge skills matrices. You know, when you write these things all out in white font or in
310120	316320	tiny fonts that aren't really readable by a person, but are aimed to be picked up by systems,
316320	323180	you only need these things if you're planning to send those resumes into those systems. And
324120	328340	that shouldn't be your goal. And I don't want that to be what comes out of this talk.
328500	331660	I'm a firm believer you want to get your resume in front of the right person,
331660	335320	not into the right system. So we're not going to be covering this.
338660	345380	So my goals by the end of this talk, the plan is that you will understand why resumes are still
346080	353140	very, very important. You can understand what the common mistakes are, how we go about avoiding
353140	361140	them. Also, the relationship between your social media and your resume and the actual job search
361140	366340	you're doing. And then the final part, as soon as we're going to come up with an amazing resume for
366340	372160	you, we're going to want to make sure we maximise what we do with that and maximise the opportunities
372160	383580	that you can get. So CV or resume. You can probably tell by the accent, I'm not originally
383580	389000	from the US. And the great thing about DEF CON is, you know, when I've been for the last few years,
389000	395120	you meet so many people from all over the world. I'm originally from London. I spent half my career
395120	401680	in recruitment, actually recruiting for Europe. And in Europe, we use Curriculum Vitae or CV,
401680	407360	which is Latin for course of life. And that's how we refer to it there. Not course of life,
407360	412900	of course, we call it CV. And then the other half of my recruiting experience has been over here in
412900	421720	the US, where we use resume, which is French to summarise. Now, there are a lot of articles that
421720	427580	I've read on the web, and it talks about the differences between having a CV or having a
427580	434180	resume. It talks about the length or maybe content. But it's the same thing. It's the same
434180	443060	thing, right? It's a concise written history of your work in life. And it's designed to get you
443060	446880	an interview. It's not designed to get you a job, it's designed to get you that interview.
447760	453540	Now, I've been hands off for a while now, I don't do a lot of hands on recruiting.
453540	461260	And I'm still seeing probably 10 resumes a day. When I was recruiting, 60 a day wouldn't be
461260	466620	unheard of. And if I work back and think about how long I've been doing this for,
466620	473940	even with half of it being in Europe with, of course, the famous European vacation time we get,
473940	479220	which I definitely made use of, I'd still estimate that I saw over 200,000 resumes
480300	486520	in my time within the recruitment industry. And almost all of that was the tech area. So
486520	491660	I've seen a lot of resumes, and that's what I'm building this information on off of.
494260	501040	So resumes are still very much important. You need to look at your resume. And some people
501040	506880	get frustrated when they think about resumes. Oh, I've still got to do this. They can just look at
506880	513400	my LinkedIn. Resumes are still very, very important. Just as communication skills are
513400	519580	important in every job that you go for, they will expect and want good communication skills.
519580	525340	And your resume, you've got to think of your resume as a test, if anything. Your resume is
525340	533260	there to show hiring management, recruiters, everybody in that process, how you would
533260	538780	communicate in writing. So you've got to bear that in mind. When you're doing this,
538780	543720	when you're looking at resumes and you're putting them together, this is a test.
543820	550680	You want to do your absolute best in this test. And hopefully this presentation and talk is going
550680	556720	to help you do some of this. And just remember this document is there to get you the interview.
556720	562260	And once it's got you the interview, it's going to form a major part of your actual interview
562260	567540	process. So let's make sure you got it right. Let's make sure it's something that you know
567540	578130	really well and then you can use. So owning your resume. Your resume represents you.
578970	586850	This is supposed to be you, right? You should be the one that is putting your resume together.
586890	593950	It represents you, it represents your career history. You must write it. Can you take a look
593950	598050	at others? Of course you can. Who else do you know in the industry? Let's have a look at their
598050	603770	resume. Will they share them with you? Could you use other people's in a template? Of course you
603770	610050	could. You know, if you want to do that, great. No problem with that. Use a second set of eyes.
610050	616870	You know people that are in the industry or recruiters or whoever it may be. Get them to
616870	621050	take another look at your resume and give you feedback on it. You've got friends, you've got
621050	626790	contacts. Do that. Just don't pay for somebody to do this. Please, please, please, please, please do
626790	634430	not pay for somebody to do this. And I'm probably really annoying a lot of people that maybe do
634430	644690	resume writing as a career. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not really that sorry, honestly.
644690	652090	That professional resume writers, I think I know one professional resume writer that actually
652090	658210	works within the cyber security industry and has cyber security experience. One,
658210	665050	one. I think I know 15,000 contacts on LinkedIn, well over 15,000 now. I still only know one,
665050	672070	right? And your resume is very, very much industry specific. Different resumes are
672070	679190	needed for different industries. And so the cyber security industry has its own requirements. So
679190	684910	having a generic resume written by somebody that writes resumes for every industry isn't going to
684910	692070	be that good for you. And I've looked at a lot of these and I can tell you much of the time when
692070	696850	we are asking for changes and we have somebody say, well, but I paid somebody to do this.
696850	702590	They still need changes in them because they're not set up for what a cyber security resume should
702590	708350	look like. And so you could pay quite a lot of money for that to be done. So I'm just going to
708350	715950	say, save your money, spend it on something that would help your career, whether that's expanding
715950	721990	your knowledge, a training course, whether that's buying a new tool that you can play with at home,
722630	730430	or whether that's even getting a certification, just don't pay somebody else to write your
730430	735630	resume. Don't do that, please. Sorry, resume reviewers, but don't do it. Don't do it,
735630	741130	resume writers. Anyway, right. Dress for the occasion is what I call this. You want your
741130	748410	resume to fit the occasion. And so you're going to have multiple resumes. What we're going to
748410	755590	mainly focus on is your generic resume. So your generic resume is the one that you're going to
755590	761750	base your specific resumes from. So you've got to get this one right, first of all.
761750	768970	If you're one of those people who like to take a printed copy to job fairs, and I gather there are
768970	773990	still people that like to do that, especially because people don't want to send documents
773990	778430	that could, you know, especially within cyber security, sending documents to different people
778430	782530	or letting people loose on your computer might understand that. So if you're somebody who wants
782530	788030	to take a printed copy with you, this is the one you're going to use.
788450	795150	This one is going to be more tailored towards the type of job that you're most likely to be
795150	803270	applying for. This one's going to talk about projects, experience that you've got that's
803270	808950	broad. It's not going to go into so much the specifics. It's going to give people a general
808950	816530	understanding of who you are and the experience that you've got. And you're going to use that
816530	822190	for certain things you will use that for. The specific resume is the one that you're going to
822190	827610	actually use and write for job description, specific job description. You know, you've got
827610	832750	the job description there. You're going to take your generic resume. You're going to really,
832750	837230	really read that job description, or even better, if you know somebody that works there,
837230	845590	or you even may know the hiring manager, speak to them, get more information out of what they're
845590	852410	truly looking for, and then make sure that's in your specific resume. I did this at my last
852410	857510	position, and I know you're looking to do the same project, right? Make sure that's in there.
857510	865470	And you've got to make sure that that relevant experience relates to the job you're applying for.
866410	871430	The most relevant skills are in there. The most relevant tools are in there. Your most
871430	877690	relevant projects are in there. They're all ready for that particular job, and you're going to want
877690	882510	to detail that in your specific resume. So you might end up with quite a few specific resumes.
883270	889790	Totally normal. It's important. It does take time. But this resume is the one that will
889790	893970	get you the job, and it's the one that will create the conversation during your interview.
894110	901350	So take time. It's worth it. All right, common mistakes. Oh, boy.
902510	910290	Let's start off with resume length. Now, I'm talking very much about... I said this earlier
910290	917930	in the presentation. We're talking about generically what most managers want to see.
920350	926710	Some managers out there may well like to see a long, detailed resume, but on the whole,
926710	931650	most do not. And so we're going to work for the most. We're going to put together a generic
931650	939270	resume that works for the most. And so talking about resume length, your resume is a clear,
939270	944310	concise example of your written communication skills.
945090	951530	So unless you just graduated and have very little work experience,
952350	957190	I can't see how you will get it to one page. And the ones that I have seen that are one-page
957190	964150	resumes, they're usually missing key information, and they're usually written in a really small font
964150	970410	that just makes it awkward to read. It's not good. It's not what you would do in a report that you
970410	977650	would be writing. So skip the one-page one unless you've just graduated. Ideal resume length,
977650	985810	two to three pages. Once you get to four pages, you're kind of pushing it. And anything more than
985810	992770	that, you're going to lose your audience. I'll tell you a story, and I wrote a blog about this,
992770	1001110	but I had a resume sent across to us, and I opened it up. It was 55 pages. 55-page resume. Wow.
1003210	1008870	I don't know whether to write a resume or a novel. It was insane. So I actually spoke to the person,
1008870	1016170	and you have to be pretty tactile because this is somebody's experience, and they obviously feel
1016170	1020330	passionate about the experience they've got, and they feel passionate enough to write a 55-page
1020330	1026350	resume. So I did say to the person, have you got another resume that you also use? Because
1026890	1031370	some people have a couple of generic resumes. Some people will have a two- or three-page
1031370	1035490	generic resume, and then they might have something, a longer one, in case they get
1035490	1040690	asked and you've got something that goes into more detail. So I asked that question,
1041870	1047770	and got an email back, excitedly opened up the resume. That's an amazing experience.
1047770	1055790	Opened up the resume, 70 pages. Yep, turns out the 55-page resume was their short one.
1055990	1060990	So look, I know you're passionate about your experience. I know you want to work for companies
1060990	1066590	that are also passionate about your experience, but you need to be able to write clear and concise
1066590	1074130	documents for most jobs that you go for. And so if you can't get it down to that, and we'll talk
1074270	1079930	a bit about how you might be able to do that, but if you can't get it down to that length,
1079930	1084030	you've got to look at your ability and what kind of information you're putting in there.
1084050	1087770	So look, work on it. Get your resume down. Two or three pages is ideal.
1088730	1091150	So the other thing we're going to talk about is formatting errors.
1092230	1098330	Choose your font and stick to it. Same font throughout the whole document. Don't do multiple
1098330	1104110	fonts. Be careful when you cut and paste things, maybe from one resume to another or from your
1104110	1107910	LinkedIn, you might find that you actually end up putting in a different font and you didn't know
1107910	1112650	that. So regularly check that you've got the same font throughout the whole lot.
1112990	1121550	And generally, probably the same size font as well. You might have titles in a slightly
1121550	1126630	bigger font, I suppose, but you've got to keep whatever you do, do the format the same right
1126630	1133690	the way through. So if you have a description of where you worked, how long you worked there,
1133690	1138170	your job title, and then underneath, you've got bullet points of the things you did.
1138770	1143330	Every job should be done the same way, not bullet points on one and no bullet points
1143330	1147390	for another or square bullet points on one and round bullet points on another.
1147950	1153870	You want to make sure that you've got all of these things laid out so that the format reads
1153870	1159070	and there's nothing distracting them, basically. And be really careful about where you use
1159070	1166110	your bolding. Some places, if you bold every company you work for, and then the date,
1166110	1169770	and then the date isn't bold, you know, if it's the same all the way through,
1169770	1174850	and it's used sparingly, it can look good. If you're bolding lots of words and you're
1174850	1179030	sending them to different jobs, and sometimes those skills don't apply to those jobs, it's
1179030	1183170	going to look a mess. First off, and it's often not going to apply. And somebody's going to be
1183170	1188030	looking and saying, why are they even bolding those words? They don't apply to this job.
1188030	1196310	So just be really careful and use it sparingly. Spelling and grammar mistakes.
1198090	1205110	I always get a bit, but why are these still happening? We have tools, you know, Microsoft
1205790	1211270	has tools for you. If you're using the Microsoft suite, it picks up your spellings. You get a
1211270	1216330	little red squiggly line underneath. It tells you that it picks up your grammar mistakes.
1216330	1220730	It tells you to check them. And this page had quite a lot of squiggly lines on it, I can tell
1220730	1231410	you. Use those, read through them, and that should be your first point. And you'd be so surprised,
1231410	1239590	probably three quarters, I would say, of the resumes we see have still got spelling and
1239590	1245590	grammar mistakes in them. And so it's such an easy one to avoid. So make sure you're using
1245590	1251390	the word processing systems or whatever software you've got to pick up on that.
1251830	1258410	And I get that not everybody's great with spelling and grammar. I may well be from England,
1258410	1265430	but actually I'm pretty shit at it. It's not a skill of mine. And so I ask friends, I ask other
1265430	1270850	people to read over. In fact, even this presentation, I asked one of my colleagues to have a
1270850	1275590	look through it and point out stuff. And I made some formatting mistakes. Thankfully,
1275590	1281310	the spelling and grammar mistakes were only the ones I meant to make. But I did make some mistakes
1281310	1286930	in it. So look, get somebody else to look at it. Now these next couple of things, they kind of do
1286930	1296190	merge a little bit in together. So missing specific employment dates. We will see resumes that are
1296190	1306450	sent to us that will say 2018 to 2019. I mean, when? I mean, is that a two-month job? Did you
1306450	1311650	start in December and finish in January? Or is that a two-year job? Did you start in January
1311650	1318670	and finish in December? You need to be specific with your employment dates. And I'll talk about
1318670	1324270	why, because as we roll into sort of leaving employment gaps, everybody at some point may
1324270	1330090	well have an employment gap. Maybe you were out of work and you were looking. Maybe you took the
1330090	1335570	time off to do some certifications. Maybe you travelled. Maybe you looked after a loved one.
1335910	1342810	Maybe you had a baby. Who knows? People have good reasons for having gaps in their employment.
1344050	1348750	And you should embrace that. That gap in your employment, put what you were doing,
1348750	1352630	put it down there on your resume. And the reason why I say that is because
1353790	1358790	you will want to cause... when people are reading your resume, you don't want them having doubts.
1358790	1364130	You don't want them making lists of, okay, I must ask them about those employment dates. I must ask
1364130	1368270	them what they were doing between that time and that time. You don't want them asking you that.
1368270	1372970	You don't want them... because if you have more doubts than the resume next to them, you might
1372970	1377210	just never get a chance to talk to them about it. Maybe they'll take these resumes and they'll never
1377210	1385950	get to that pile of resumes. So get rid of the doubts. Make sure that they can focus just on
1386490	1391790	what your resume has in it, the information and stuff that's applicable. That's why this is so
1391790	1398170	important. And then irrelevant information. I'll give you a few examples. This is going to really
1398170	1410630	help you with your resume length. So nobody, at least nobody I know, wants to know lots of detail
1410630	1418070	about a three-month job that you had 15 years ago. Just probably not applicable, right? Just
1418070	1425370	not applicable. So anything you've done even 10 years ago, and some people I've seen even go up
1425370	1432110	to sort of seven, eight years, but certainly 10 years ago. If it's 10 years ago, it doesn't need
1432110	1437790	to have any detail. I think if it's 10 years ago, you need to have the company you work for,
1437790	1444310	the specific employment date you work for them, and the job title. That's it. A few of you now
1444310	1447850	are looking at really long resumes and thinking, wow, I can just get rid of half of it. That's
1447850	1454450	perfect. Thank you, Chris. So that's what you're going to look to do. If they want to find out
1454450	1459210	more information about those jobs, they'll ask during the interview. They're not going to, that's
1459210	1462890	not going to stop you from getting an interview. It's going to be something they'll ask you about,
1462890	1467690	especially if it's very applicable to the job, or at least the job title is applicable.
1468050	1474270	So just bear that in mind. Likewise, and this is kind of a little bit of a bugbear of mine.
1475250	1482370	Under certifications, a lot of people will have not only certifications they've got,
1482370	1487350	certifications that they've let run out. So they don't have, they no longer have them.
1487350	1494850	And then also certifications that they haven't even got yet. CISSP-studying. I've seen it so
1494850	1501750	many times. And that's a bugbear for me because you forget, we have old resumes of people when
1501750	1507350	they apply for jobs. I can see that for two years, you've been studying for your CISSP
1507350	1512370	because on your last resume, the last time you were looking, it says it. So honestly,
1512370	1517870	it's bullshit. I'm going to mince my words, right? It's bullshit. You're not still studying for it.
1517870	1524990	So take it off. Or if you're truly about to do the test, right? If you know, September,
1524990	1530230	I've got my test book, September, 2020, I've got my test book, then put it CISSP
1530230	1537510	test book for September, 2020, put the year, right? But other than that, take it off. People
1537510	1541710	will ask you, like when you've got stuff on there, people will ask you about it. And then,
1541710	1547050	you know, you've got an M&R and you might have to, you know, blur the truth a little bit. And
1547050	1553210	they can tell, they can tell this stuff. So don't put it on there. Other thing is we don't need a
1553210	1557990	load of degree, a load of information about what you studied your degree in if it was 10 years ago.
1558650	1562510	And don't bother people putting graduation dates, right? You don't want anybody to date you or to
1562510	1569190	age you. You don't need to put dates of education in there. You can put what you studied, you put
1569190	1573950	what your major is, you can put your GPA, that's it. Don't go into detail. Now, there's a caveat
1573950	1579990	to that. And the caveat is that if you're a recent graduate, you don't have a lot of experience,
1580910	1586890	then you may want to put into a little bit more detail as to what you did as part of that study.
1586890	1592890	But that's the only reason you should do that. And then the last thing about your resume is
1593990	1597550	this is going to be read by multiple people in a company.
1598790	1603550	Some of those people are going to be technical, and some of those are going to be non-technical.
1604330	1609870	And they're going to judge your written communication on this resume. And if you do
1609870	1614910	really, really well, this is probably going to be, you know, in front of management directors,
1614910	1619430	maybe even execs, depending on the position you're vying for. And you've got to write a
1619430	1624970	resume that speaks to all of those different people. In my experience, if you're going for
1624970	1631070	a technical job, you will end up having some kind of technical test. So you don't need to worry
1631870	1636010	too much about making it overly technical. As long as they've got an idea of what you did,
1636010	1640070	what projects that you've done, they're going to ask you about it. Make it something that works
1640070	1647710	for all different levels of people. Because, you know, if you're writing a pen test report
1647710	1654710	or a risk assessment, they want somebody that's able to write something that speaks to different
1654710	1662770	people, different levels of people. And so let's not make it overly technical. You don't want a
1662770	1667870	non-technical person to get lost in it and just put it down, right? Reminder, they will check your
1667870	1675130	technical skills. I'm going to leave this one up here. Dishonesty. Let me take a drink of water
1675130	1687270	while you just look at this slide. Don't be dishonest, please. It always comes out. I've
1687270	1691790	seen it come out during interview. I've seen it just during people sending their resumes. I've
1691790	1697150	seen it during the interview process. It's really awkward. I've seen it come out after people have
1697150	1705330	been offered jobs and I've seen jobs retracted. I've seen it come out after people have got jobs
1705330	1713590	and I have seen people fired. Just don't do it. There's no reason. This should be your honest
1714570	1719470	career experience. Be proud of what you have done. Don't make up things you haven't done. It will
1719470	1732370	come up and it will bite you in the arse. So social media. You guys generally are pretty savvy
1732930	1740510	and I put a big buck here because for eight years I've been doing this and I still see
1740510	1749670	cyber security people not thinking about how their social media impacts their job search.
1749670	1756190	I've seen public tweets, old public tweets, that people probably don't feel that way anymore
1756990	1761510	come and stop people getting jobs. Certainly stop people getting interviews.
1764090	1770250	There's two ways to work it. Keep it private and I think a lot of cyber security people probably
1770250	1775690	understand that. You can have a couple of different social media. If you want to have a
1775690	1781070	private and a public one and have it separated like that, you can absolutely do that.
1781350	1786070	Or, of course, you can be at the point of, look, I don't give a shit. This is me.
1786210	1790870	If you're going to hire me, this is what I feel. And I see a lot of people do that and that's great
1790870	1797010	for them. And there are a lot of people in high demand in our industry. And so, you know,
1797010	1804250	absolutely, you know, you can go ahead and do that. But you make that decision. Just do it with a
1804250	1809950	clear head, I guess. Do it and understanding what you're doing. Because the last thing you
1809950	1815750	want to do and I guess, you know, we should be pretty good at assessing risk, right? And you
1815750	1821070	can decide how risky it is, whether you want to manage that issue or whether you don't want to
1821070	1827070	manage it. Up to you. Just make sure you're thinking about it because it can stop you and
1827070	1831250	it will stop you getting jobs and it could stop you getting your dream job. It could stop you
1831250	1836490	getting the thing that you most want to do. And, you know, you don't really want it to do that.
1837250	1844430	So, moving on to LinkedIn accounts. I've seen a couple of people with a couple of different
1844430	1848650	LinkedIn accounts. That always looks a bit strange, especially as most of them are not
1848650	1855210	private and they often say different things. Don't do that. Have one LinkedIn account.
1855210	1862150	And make sure the information matches what's in your actual resume. So make sure the job title
1862150	1868310	matches. Make sure the description matches. And if you could probably have a couple of different
1868310	1873270	job titles, you're welcome to have one on LinkedIn and then you could have that same one on your
1873270	1878950	resume and then in brackets, the job title that you would put that as. Because I know that some
1878950	1885830	businesses use very generic job titles. So you can you can work within this, but make sure that
1885830	1890070	there is a match there and it isn't going to make somebody say, I love this resume, this person looks
1890070	1897310	great. Let me look at their LinkedIn. Oh, oh, well, that's totally different. Why is it totally
1897310	1901610	different? That's strange. And you don't want to create that doubt because you don't know how many
1901610	1906610	people you're up against when you're going for these jobs. And then think about the information
1906610	1914690	that you share as well. Would your previous employer be happy about that information? Would
1914690	1920890	your current employer be that happy with that amount of information you share? And would your
1920890	1927750	future employer be happy about the amount of information you share on there? So just be very,
1927750	1936340	very careful around that. Maximizing impact. Got a couple of slides on this. Very important. You've
1936340	1941260	got the best resume in the world. You put something together. You're very happy with it. How can we
1941260	1950080	maximize impact? First up, we're going to talk about cover letters or cover sheets. As an external
1950080	1958020	recruitment company, we do not send out a resume unless it has a cover sheet, a one-page cover
1958020	1963800	sheet right at the beginning. Absolutely every time. We do it because we believe it makes an
1963800	1970160	impact on how long that hiring manager will take to look at your resume.
1972660	1979280	And so it's a way for us to take out very much the most relevant experience in those two or
1979280	1987360	three pages and putting it right up front. We know Mr Hiring Manager or Mrs Hiring Manager that you're
1987360	1995300	miss hiring manager. Whatever pronoun you prefer. We know hiring manager that you are looking for
1996040	2004290	these five skills. This person has this many years with this skill.
2005390	2011410	They were using it in their most recent role. We pull out that information. We make it so that
2025270	2030770	the manager looks at it and is excited by your impact. So that's how we do it. As an individual,
2030770	2037010	you might do it a little bit differently. First off, you've got to make sure that they're specific
2037010	2043070	and concise. The same way as you would do in your resume, you've got to do the same in your cover
2043070	2049010	letters or cover sheets. Make sure they're specific to the job description. Don't send out
2049010	2053510	generic cover letters. They're horrible. They really are. Don't send a cover letter. If you're
2053510	2057490	going to send a generic one, just don't bother sending one at all. Make sure they're specific
2057490	2062630	to the job you're applying for. Make sure they're concise. Take your relevant experience and actually
2062630	2068530	look at the job description or the job specification and read through it and think
2068530	2074810	about it being a question and answer. They are looking for this. What experience do I have with
2074810	2079670	this? They are looking for this. What experience do I have with this? And think about pulling that
2079670	2084310	kind of information out. The other things you should put on the cover letters or cover sheets
2084310	2091510	are why you really want the position. What's exciting you about it? And then that folds
2091510	2095830	on to why you want to work for that company. What excites you about that company? If they feel that
2095830	2099950	you're excited about the job, you're excited about working for them, you've done a little
2099950	2107590	bit of background on them, they're going to be excited to meet you. And then finally, if relevant,
2107590	2112110	you may want to put why you're leaving your current position. It's really, really important
2112110	2118130	if you're doing this, you keep it very positive. And you should always be talking as positively as
2118130	2124430	you can about why you're leaving your current position. It's been wonderful working here,
2124430	2131130	but they don't support going to conferences or they don't actually pay for people to do
2131130	2137770	certifications. Something like that. They have eight days vacation time. I work really hard.
2137770	2142070	I'm willing to work really long hours, but I would like to spend more time and see more of my family.
2142110	2147150	Whatever it might be, if it is relevant, then you can put that in the cover letter.
2149190	2155890	So going on to sort of other ways to maximise impact. These are the three ways that you're
2155890	2160050	going to really do your search. So you've got to make sure you own it. Own your search.
2160990	2168110	One way is going to be responding to adverts. The other way is going to be utilising your network.
2168790	2172950	And then finally, and these are the big three for me,
2172950	2179010	is recruiters. Working with internal recruiters and working with external recruiters.
2180290	2184010	So we'll talk about adverts first of all. Call that adverts a mess.
2186270	2189150	Adverts are a funny thing, especially for our industry.
2190010	2198030	So let's think about this for a second. I'm going to advertise to people that work in security
2198030	2207510	and privacy. And I'm going to expect them to send their resume, which includes their personal data,
2207510	2213150	through an advert to get added on a database, multiple databases,
2214850	2221970	for who knows how long that's going to be sitting there for. And then you're going to get maybe
2221970	2228770	standardised responses. You may or may not even be contacted. And when you do get contacted,
2228770	2233910	there's a high chance that the first person contacting you or speaking to you may know
2233910	2241070	nothing about our industry. And maybe even working off a checklist. Do you have this?
2241070	2246450	Do you not have this? Check, check, check, check, check, check, check. Strangely enough,
2246450	2252190	it doesn't work very well in an industry. It's broken! I should be there. I should smash a glass
2252190	2259630	here for effect. That would be really good. It is broken. Advertising is broken. You should not rely
2259630	2267610	on this, no matter how great your resume is. Don't rely on responding to adverts to be the major part
2267610	2273030	of your job search. Am I saying you shouldn't do them? No. I'm saying you can still do that,
2273030	2278170	but it shouldn't make up the major part of that. And we'll talk about the other things that you
2278170	2282470	are going to do. As a recruitment company, you're probably saying, hey, but Chris,
2282470	2288830	I've seen Tyro Security. I've seen them advertise their jobs. You've got a job page on your website.
2289010	2292970	You advertise your jobs here. You advertise your jobs here. Yes, we absolutely do.
2293010	2299270	And I can tell you, we don't get a lot of response from them. And a lot of the response we do get
2299270	2309230	people that are hoping to work in cyber security. And so the thing is, they haven't got any
2309230	2314150	experience. And as a recruitment company, we get paid to find experienced people. So we don't have
2314290	2319170	a lot we can help those people with. And actually, we've got to do a lot of delving through people
2319170	2325470	that aren't qualified to get to the people that are. It's not really worth a whole lot of our time.
2325470	2329350	We still do it because at the end of the day, we're putting out there and you're taking the
2329350	2332910	time to respond to us and we want to take the time to respond to you. But really,
2332910	2338470	we don't get a lot of benefit from advertising. The major benefit is probably from having companies
2338470	2343750	come to us and say, oh, do you know what? I've seen you do a lot of adverts for that application
2343750	2349230	security people or cloud security people or DevSecOps or whatever it may be. You're advertising
2349430	2354010	a lot of jobs for that. So you probably got a lot of candidates. So I want to talk to you because
2354010	2358390	you're a specialist in that area and I'm looking for a DevSecOps person as well.
2358390	2363250	So we actually probably get more benefit from the client side rather than the candidate side.
2365760	2374700	Right. Your network. Your network is going to be absolutely key. The people you know,
2374700	2380140	what companies are your friends, do your neighbours work for? Are they recruiting
2380140	2386600	for positions that you might be interested in? How are you networking? Are you using those?
2386640	2391320	Think about the people you know in person. Then you think about your virtual network.
2391320	2397760	LinkedIn is key for this. Who do you know? Who do they know? Connect with managers that you think
2397760	2403800	may be hiring and take the time when you connect them to write a personal note. Are you involved
2403800	2410500	with your local community? The funny thing about this is that we're not meeting up so much in
2410500	2415260	person at the moment, right? But a lot of the communities are doing a lot of webinars and
2415260	2421320	things like that. Certainly, my Cloud Security Alliance chapter is doing regular webinars.
2422020	2427820	So think about getting involved with that, either just as a member or even as a volunteer. It's a
2427820	2432740	great way to build your network and be involved. It'll be amazing to see who you might meet.
2432740	2440080	You've got people like the Cloud Security Alliance, OWASP, ISARCA, ISSA. You've got other local
2440580	2447420	groups as well that may just have meetups or webinars. So take a look at meetup.com.
2447420	2452560	That might help you. If you're part of an underrepresented group,
2452560	2461560	Cyberjutsu, the YSYS people, the Women in Security and Privacy, ICMCP, the Blacks in Cybersecurity.
2461560	2468280	Join a group that you feel you will fit in well to, and that can be a great networking
2468280	2473880	opportunity for you. And you can give back as well at the same time. Another thing, conferences.
2475820	2479800	Welcome to DEF CON, right? You're attending the conference right now.
2480140	2486320	Conferences are an amazing way to meet people that may well hire you or may be able to even help you.
2486880	2492060	Most companies nowadays have referral schemes. They're very, very common.
2492260	2497980	So even if you're not meeting a hiring manager, you could still be meeting somebody that could
2497980	2504220	refer you internally. And a referral internally can help you skip a lot of the process. You'd
2504220	2509680	be surprised. I know companies that guarantee that if you refer somebody, if somebody internally
2509680	2515080	refers you, they will call you. You'll definitely get a call. Now, whether you'll get a full
2515080	2519100	official interview or not, but you'll get at least a phone call. So you will hear back. They
2519100	2525680	get back to their referrals in ways that they sometimes don't get back to their advert responses.
2526260	2533060	So bear that in mind. The other thing to think about is speakers. I always say,
2533060	2537820	failing to plan is planning to fail. It's one of my favourite quotes. If you're going to go
2537820	2543180	to a conference, if you're going to attend a conference, make sure you're seeing in advance
2543180	2549340	who you want to see talk. Could they help you in the process of you looking for a role? Do you
2549340	2555280	want to work for that company? If it's an in-person one, be that person hanging around the stage
2555280	2560840	afterwards and actually meet the person. If it's virtual, hopefully, like me, they'll be in a Discord
2560840	2566180	chat and you can talk to them in there. Or you can reach out to them and say to them, I listened to
2566180	2571580	your speech here and it was great. It was a really great presentation. I'd love to connect with you
2571580	2577000	if you're going to connect with me via LinkedIn. And then the last thing is research and presentations.
2577840	2583340	This is going to help your credibility hugely. It's going to be really good for your personal
2583340	2590200	branding. It's a great, great, great way to network and it's experience that will help you
2590200	2595900	in your career and it will really improve your resume. So get involved in doing research,
2595900	2602220	presenting research, network and volunteer and help. These are all great ways to really
2602220	2609680	maximise what you're going to be able to do with your resume. Right, this one.
2610940	2617280	72% of cyber security professionals do not believe that their HR department understands
2617280	2623820	their hiring needs. Ouch. Wow, that sounds really, really terrible. I should state here,
2623820	2628080	I know some amazing internal recruiters. In fact, I'm going to be on a recruitment
2628820	2634180	happy hour panel within DEF CON and some of them I've got so much respect for.
2634180	2641720	This isn't always actually an internal recruiter's issue. Internal recruiters that spread at many
2641720	2649060	companies very, very thinly, very thinly. And they can't get enough just cyber security,
2649060	2654500	job JDs, job descriptions to actually just work in that area, to specialise in that area.
2654500	2659200	Very tough. It's a tough ask. How can you ask somebody that one day could be recruiting for
2659340	2663520	a cyber security person and the next day could be recruiting for an accountant or even recruiting
2663520	2669780	for the same person on the same day? Really tough ask to expect them to know and understand cyber
2669780	2676340	security, to sort of recognise what's on a resume and recognise the relationships between certain
2676340	2683820	skills or certain tools. And so it can and it does result in people that have applied actually
2683820	2689020	not getting through to the next stage and being overlooked despite them being really good.
2689700	2695260	It's very tough ask for internal recruiters. So I just say don't give them too hard a time. Even
2695260	2700620	if you've had a bad experience, internal and external recruiters, please don't give any of
2700620	2708420	us a bad time. We try our best, right? Now, I will say this. There are, you know, your first port of
2708420	2713480	call really should be technical hiring people when you're trying to get your resume in front of them.
2713480	2717640	But there are some great internal recruiters. If you're working for a very, very large company as
2717640	2723880	an internal recruiter, certain ones have people that specialise just in cyber security. So they
2723880	2728240	do know what they're doing. And if they work for a cyber security company or a company, the majority
2728240	2732740	of what they do is in the cyber security business, there's a good chance they're going to know and
2732740	2738620	understand your resume. So just bear that in mind. And that stat, by the way, is from the ISRC state
2738620	2743940	of cyber security. And it is tough. And I think it's tough because a lot of these roles stay open
2743940	2750840	for a very long time. And people lose faith in their internal people because of that. So just
2750840	2756480	bear in mind that don't be rude to people. Don't be rude to anybody, anybody you speak to. I've got
2756720	2763480	a rule. It's funny. When I used to interview people to come and work for me, one of the
2763480	2766960	first people I would speak to at the end of an interview would actually be the person that worked
2766960	2772140	on the reception desk. I'd ask what their first impression was. How was the person to them? So
2772140	2777880	anybody that's involved in the process, don't be rude to them. Don't talk down to people. No need
2777880	2785200	to do that. And you'd be surprised how much of a say somebody that you may think may not have
2785200	2789920	could have. So don't do that. And don't ignore company's process. If somebody tells you this
2789920	2801280	is the process we go through, don't ignore it. Right. So external recruiters, us guys.
2801960	2807060	When you're looking at external recruiters, you really want to build relationships with
2807060	2812200	ones that specialise in cyber security. Great way of doing that, you can look at their LinkedIn,
2812200	2818680	of course, you can see what they write, how they describe what they do.
2818780	2825520	Another way could be looking at the company they work for. Are they advertising just cyber
2825520	2829660	security positions? Or are they saying they're specialists? Because there's an awful lot of
2829660	2834560	specialists in cyber security that aren't actually specialists. They're generic people
2834560	2839560	and they work on whatever roles that their clients give them. Right. So you want to work
2839560	2845740	with specialists. There's an easy way of doing that. They have credibility in their industry.
2846000	2852360	They can put you in front of hiring management and they can also talk to the hiring management,
2852360	2858580	maybe even explain in a little bit more detail and get a little bit technical as to why you are
2858580	2865640	somebody that should get an interview. And, you know, that credibility, certainly we see our
2865640	2872560	resumes go to the top of the pile when maybe some generic recruiters might have to go through a
2872560	2877500	slightly different process. So, you know, part of that credibility and stuff will really help you.
2877500	2883340	A good way to identify them as well is are they involved in the community? Are they going out and
2883520	2889240	building a network? Do they go to these conferences? Do they go to the meetups? Do they volunteer at
2889240	2895080	these places? Are they regularly attending these? Have you given up your personal time to
2895080	2899320	regularly attend them? Chances are they are dedicated to the industry. So that's a good
2899320	2906560	way to find them. They wouldn't be that hard to search for, I'm sure. They're the recruiters you
2906560	2912220	build your relationships with, you connect with them. They'll have a network and they'll also
2912220	2918600	give you free cyber security resume advice. They'll be able to tell you on there what you
2918600	2923280	should maybe change. They'll be able to use that industry experience to help you during the
2923280	2927620	interview process. And they're going to be able to really guide you through that process and
2928480	2933560	give you a much better chance of probably getting the job you want. So, just bear that in mind.
2933940	2940460	So, coming towards the end of the talk now. Hopefully I'm not too short and not too long.
2941380	2946760	Looking at my watch here, hopefully I'm doing all right. So the takeaways from this.
2947780	2952720	Let's make sure you understand, and hopefully you do at this stage, you understand why resumes
2952720	2958600	are still so, so important and why they're worth taking the time to make sure that you get them
2958600	2966640	right. Hopefully you also understand the common mistakes that we see and you can avoid at least
2966640	2974580	those ones. Also, understanding that relationship of how social media fits into your resume,
2974580	2976920	owning the risk you're going to take,
2978620	2984460	understanding what you're doing when you post things on social media publicly and what the
2984460	2991580	benefits might be to keeping that private. And then finally, how to get this most amazing
2991580	2994800	resume that you're going to be able to put together. How are you going to actually be
2994800	3001000	able to maximise it and put it out there and get it in front of the people that will make
3001000	3009350	the decisions. So hopefully this has been useful for you. This is the end of the presentation.
3009930	3015610	You can follow me on Twitter. I'm actually not on Twitter an awful lot. A lot of the stuff that
3015610	3022730	I post on LinkedIn, I will also post on Twitter. LinkedIn really is, I'm a pretty big user.
3022730	3027510	Anybody that's connected with me probably knows that already. I'm a big user of LinkedIn. So
3028010	3034510	absolutely, connect with me, please. I get a lot of connections and I'm probably turned down maybe
3034510	3040730	80% of what I get. So generally, if you work in the cyber security industry, I'm going to accept
3040730	3045790	you. Please, if you can, if you wouldn't mind, just taking the time to write a little note in
3045790	3051510	that section and tell me if you wanted to connect with me to tell me how terrible my talk was at
3051510	3056990	DEF CON. That's fine. I'll still connect with you. We all need some constructive criticism.
3056990	3061850	If we can keep it constructive, that would be amazing. So yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn
3062570	3068350	and mention DEF CON if you did see it there. So look, thank you very, very much. Thank you,
3068350	3074670	Kathleen, for the opportunity to speak. Hopefully I did okay. And those people that
3075210	3080230	I've maybe sent to sleep, they can wake up now. At least they got a good nap. Thank you.
3080950	3087270	Chris, thank you so much. You brought up some really great points. One thing I wanted to point
3087270	3093410	out that a lot of people, a lot of the technical resumes that I've been reviewing in the community,
3093750	3099270	a lot of people use templates. They believe that the templates are going to make their
3099270	3105350	resumes look pretty. But when you use the template, it doesn't have the spell check
3105350	3112830	or the formatting check. Primarily the spell check. So a lot of people have been using templates
3112830	3122250	to make it look design pretty. Please, just keep it simple. Keep it something straightforward for
3122250	3133250	everyone to be able to read. Love the advice about social media. Keep an eye that it stays out there.
3133250	3141370	There's online reputation reports that say that HR managers and recruiters will check your social
3141370	3149270	media before they call you in for an interview. And you might not like what they view as far as
3149270	3157410	your social media. So be very careful about that. Also great recommendations on connecting with
3157410	3164630	recruiters, connecting with them in various different places, socially, online, through
3164630	3171310	conferences. Always great to be expanding your network. Chris's team is going to be part of our
3171310	3179230	resume review team. So be sure you be sure you're signing up for resume review and get some really
3179230	3184330	good advice on that. Chris, as always, great to have you part of this. Thank you for being part
3184330	3189210	of DEF CON Hacking Career Village. Thank you so much. Thank you for asking me. It's been great.